WNW Albatros DVa Jasta 76b Karl Hopf

[Ian from Doncaster]

Thanks Bob.  The material used is a monofilament, can't remember the rating, with the loose ends are CA'd together to secure the turnbuckle.  They appear stiff due to the short lengths, but they are flexible enough to bend into the correct orientations with the final rigging lines.

[xmald]

She looks amazing! Ian the turnbuckles and the eylets seem to be first class job! I hope to see her in the finished section soon!

[bobs_buckles]

Looking really nice, Ian 
Keep up the great work.

VB

[GAJouette]

  Ian,
Beautiful work my old friend.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[RAGIII]

Ian,
This continues to be a lovely build! I am following closely as I will soon start my DVa.
RAGIII

[Ian from Doncaster]

Thank you all for the comments.  I had a bit of a mishap and dropped the fuselage assembly, requiring a bit of keyhole surgery to re-attach some of the interior components.  All sorted now and the repairs are only really noticable to me as I know where they are!

I also painted all the metalwork on the forward fuselage.  This was a bit of a struggle as the circular hatches are too big for me to use my punch set to make masks, and too small for the circle cutter.  I painted these by hand, and invariably there was some overspill.  No matter how carefully I scraped off the excess (acrylic, over the Klear coated fuselage) there was some removal of the woodgrain.  I touched this up with oil paint and a toothpick.  Back in the cupboard for another 5 days to dry again!  The metalwork will get a steel colour drybrush, then once sealed with more Klear, and generally weathered, the rough edges should be camoulflaged enough.

Meanwhile I have prepared the cabanes and wing struts, which have some stencil decals to apply, and I can work on the engine as well as fitting turnbuckles/eyelets to the wings prior to final assembly.  The only parts left to make up are the guns and windscreen.

[lcarroll]

Ian,
    That technique of using monofil for the aileron control wire terminal connections is brilliant, and looks much better then the other techniques I see here. Another little trick for my tool box and Thanks! She's still coming along in spectacular fashion BTW.
Cheers,
Lance

[Ian from Doncaster]

Thank you Lance, I just substituted the mono for the extended copper wire eyelet.  The turnbuckles are all trimmed to fit and attached to the wings, ailerons etc, just the cowling ones to go.  The opposite end eyelets are attached too, with the rigging lines tied at the eyelet ends.  That will mean making the tight connections at the turnbuckle ends, therefore more room to manouvre.  I have used the WNW "knitting in" type elastic, painted mr metal steel, for the lines themselves.

Pics not great, but here is a lower wing with turnbuckles attached, and the aileron cables fitted into their holes.  The blue tints on the wing surface are reflections of some christmas lights.  Hopefully I'll get round to some decent daylight pics soon.

[Ian from Doncaster]

I made sporadic progress over Christmas, but have almost done.  I made the engine, using Taurus plugs and although I did manage to wire them up eventually, it is a bit messy and will be hidden by the cowlings.  On my DVIIs I will wire up the plugs etc before assembly, now that I know how long the cables need to be.

Guns etc all done and added, engine and propeller, cowlings and lower wings attached.  Although I was careful not to paint the joining surfaces in the interior, I neglected to do that on the joining "plates" where the cowlings sit, so they stand proud a little.  Also, I did the same with the gun attachments and the exhaust which doesn't sit 100% correctly, so I used clear glue to fill the gaps and will touch up with paint later.

I made a few mistakes due to rushing, and trying to correct the mistakes once assembled.  My biggest modelling vice is impatience!

[Ernie]

The Alby is looking even more beautiful as you go along, Ian.  The attention
you pay to small bits shows as the aeroplane takes shape.  Wonderful work
and a credit to your talent as a modeller. 

Cheers,
Ernie

[Nigel Jackson]

Hello Ian

This is shaping up beautifully. I can't wait to see how it progresses.

Best wishes
Nigel

[RAGIII]

Your Albatros is looking great! You are a very neat and clean builder, something I have never mastered!! Lovely work!
RAGIII

[IFF1418]

Hello Ian, marvellous build a real pleasure for the eye. One of the nicests I have seen yet.

Kind regards
Patrick

[gravos]

 
Really beautiful, congratulations
@+

[Ian from Doncaster]

Thank you for all the positive comments   My photography is hiding the less effective aspects of this model - deliberately!

Almost done - today I was preparing the upper wing for fitting, attaching the struts and taping the half-rigged lines out of the way when as we must all have done, a finger wet with CA touched the upper wing top surface, revealing a perfect miniature map of Madegascar in between two wing ribs!

Fortunately I still have the original paint, so I was able to sand off the whole inter-rib space, repaint, reshade the ribs then mask all but the gap and spray with satin varnish.  The repair looks OK, apart from one raised area too close to the rib to sand off properly.  I'll post a pic later, see if you can identify where the repair is!